Our Dying Rights
ROLE
Lead Level Designer
DESCRIPTION
Our Dying Rights is a 3rd person whack and smash with a focus on protection. You play as an undead who has awoken in their crypt to find humans harvesting your people for your magic. Your mission is to rescue and protect them, then escape the crypt together using the battering ram.
Genre
Whack and Smash
TIme
7 Week (May 9 - June 22)
Team
14
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Design Goals
The main design goal of the map was to balance the three most important aspects of the level that could fit the gameplay Exploring, Protecting, and Surviving. This gave the players a fast-paced Action game.
This was possible because of the Research, Iterating, Playtesting, and Communicating with the team.
Protecting
Exploring
Surviving
CONTRIBUTIONS
Level Design
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Paper layout to Final Stage
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Collaborating with Environment artist
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Compositing the level
Gameplay
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Original Theme
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Other Design decisions
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Balancing the Game
Playtesting
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Working along with the Q/A team to make iterations to the map and other values of the game
Level Design
Research
Researching and gathering the references with the help of the team assisted me to understand how we were going to construct the level. Our game would take place in a Crypt. The team took inspiration from the Siofra River from Elden Rings. I ensured the team of designers and artists shared the same vision for the environment.
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Concept and Flow
By drawing the 2D layouts of the level, I could easily visualize the potential areas of the map. I had to design a Crypt in a giant cave so the shape and size of the level could be scaled and balanced accordingly. These are the initial concept sketch of the Crypt and the Bridge. After making a few ideas on paper I decided to make the flow of the map dividing each room individually.
The level flows through 3 Rooms, each room was made with supporting design pillars at the core. The First room (The Crypt) was designed for the learning curve, and The second room (The Bridge) was designed for Action and exploration. The final room (The Ruins) was designed with a primary focus on protection. After that, we started to block out and iterate on the concept level.
level Flow Diagram
3D Block out
Risk vs Reward
The First area of the map (The Crypt) starts and ends with a linear path. The player starts in a Room from there they can see the Ramp that has to be pushed out of the crypt to the Door. On the way, the players will find enemies rushing to attack the ramp, players will have to protect the ramp and also find hidden allies to push the ramp to the next room where they can find more allies. the goal is to find and protect as many as possible by the time the ramp breaks the final gate.
The Second area (The Bridge) is made of three small land pieces connected by bridges. The intention for this room was to spawn more enemy waves and help the player by using the secondary attack to push enemies into the water or spikes. the player can also take a different path from the right corner of the map to enter the next area without breaking the door where they can find more allies to help them to push the ramp or get new allies if they lost all the allies, but that leaves the ramp completely vulnerable for the enemies to attack.
The third area (The Ruins) is more packed compared to the other two areas, This room is divided into two sections. The Player has to explore more to find allies who can help them to push the ramp faster, But the risk remains of leaving the ramp without any protection. The enemies in this room also spawn in more numbers together they are hidden in the ruins and can surprise the player. In some parts of the area, the enemies will also spawn on the upper level so they can jump down straight near the ramp.
